Human Resources committee  Sure. I will try to keep my comments short. I agree with everything that Dan just said on that, but I'll take on the matching side of things, because I made some comments about that when I spoke. We launched the iCME.ca website and portal. What we're trying to do with CIC and H

Human Resources committee  There are two parts to this. The first one I'll take on is training, and it's a big issue. There are two parts to the training. One is just overall training. Companies today.... From the questionnaire that we're doing of our members right now, over 60% of respondents spend in the

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the invitation to be here today. As the CFIB and likely Perrin and the Chamber of Commerce will say, this is a critical issue for our members. We believe we're at a critical point in our economic development. Employee skills and the ab

Human Resources committee  I would say two things, because there never can be one, I guess. One is starting to break down the provincial barriers in some of the skilled trades. We talk about it quite a bit in Canada. CME has talked about it. Parliament has talked about it for a long time. We need to find

Human Resources committee  That's a great idea, which we'd certainly support--any way to speed it up. I agree with the point about Service Canada representatives looking at HR plans. It obviously needs to be done to some degree, but is there a way to maybe put in place a service standard that says it's a

Human Resources committee  I know you know. So we hear a lot of complaints. We haven't done a full analysis of every sector, but we hear the complaints, and they're pretty much universal across the country.

Human Resources committee  Unfortunately, no.

Human Resources committee  To be honest with you, I haven't heard of many people doing it well. That's unfortunately the bad news. There may be some, but it's kind of a big animal. There could be provinces that are doing it very well, but we hear a lot of complaints from our members right across the countr

Human Resources committee  We'd like to work on it, I guess I would say. We're actually trying to look at some of the models that have been developed out of the human resources sector councils. The automotive human resources sector council, in particular, has done some great work on skill certification mat

Human Resources committee  Can I come back to you on that? There may be. We're in the very early stages of discussion. There are some big changes coming to the sector councils.

Human Resources committee  I agree with everything you said. The work experience is a real problem. A lot of times companies are restricted from hiring those individuals to get the work experience because they can't get the certification. It all loops around, unfortunately. That's why I said in my remarks

Human Resources committee  Maybe it would just be to look at the existing programs and things like the Service Canada recognition, under getting a work visa for a foreign worker in the four- to six-month timeframe. As for the request by Service Canada for a full HR plan, future product plans, and all the r

Human Resources committee  I think programs like E-MAP, the engineering matching and training program that we're running in B.C., is a really good place to start looking. It's been very successful from an engineering perspective. It's filled, I think, in the range of 10,000 engineering positions in B.C. ov

Human Resources committee  Our members are in most cases the employers of the trades. They represent all sizes of manufacturers and exporters throughout the country, from mom-and-pop shops to multinationals, in almost every sector: automotive, agriculture, aerospace, and natural resources.

Human Resources committee  That's a good question. I can't explain why it happens. I can only explain that it does happen and confirm what you're hearing as well. We hear it regularly from our members right across the country, especially when there are short time-windows and gaps created because of excess